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| If nothing else, this quick analysis shows the farce of "wage freezes". Obviously, some people managed to recover nicely from "taking the zero!" |
This week's Emptyprize points out a great example of what is wrong with Local Government -- a Departmental Manager who believes that all taxpayers should be forced to absorb the cost of entertaining just a few people. In fact, he was so "outraged" at being charged to use the facilities paid for out of the School Budget that he actually cancelled the programs completely because he couldn't "in good conscience" pass the actual cost of operating the programs on to participants.
Apparently it would not bother his conscience to continue to take money from the school budget to subsidize the entertainment of the "70-80 children and 40 adults" noted in the article?
And in the interest of accuracy, according to the last Town Meeting warrant, the Rec department budget is $93,746 -- not the $12,000 mentioned in the article. This budget represents an increase of 6.4% from the prior year. The largest part of the budget is the Director's salary which increased 22.5% between 2009 and 2012.
This budget figure does NOT include the value of pension, health, and life insurance benefits. Nor, does it include the operating costs associated with the Rec Department's pond-side buildings at Oak Crest Cove.
What was the School Budget increase last year -- maybe 2%?
To be clear: The Rec Department is different from The Community School. Town Meeting votes a budget for the Rec Department and the balance comes from program participants. There was never a Town Meeting Budget for the Community School which was partially funded by its participants with the balance coming from the School Budget. (Almost nobody tries to claim The Community School was "self-supporting" anymore!)
The Rec Department provides a public service, like any part of Town Government. In theory, if people value the service, they will fund the budget.
But, it is important that all program costs be clearly recognized.
The School Department has been absorbing the costs of providing safe, clean, heated, well-lit spaces with functioning bathrooms, sufficient parking, mowed fields, etc. for years. If other organizations want to use those facilities, they need to contribute to the cost of operating the facilities. Why should budget dollars intended to fund "reading, writing, & arithmetic" programs be used to pay for lights, heat, water and snow removal for an evening adult basketball game (where many participants are not even residents)?
As far as the Rec Department continuing to allow the School to use "its facilities because that's the right thing to do", I would be curious exactly which facilities the Schools use. While it's a cute quote -- It sounds like me saying I won't charge Warren Buffet for investment advice --- I'm pretty sure he doesn't need it!
This is hardly a new situation. The argument has been going on for several years. It's unfortunate that the word "transparent" has become such a meaningless cliche. But, it all boils down to a realistic, budgeting and accounting process where decisions can be made based on the true costs and benefits of an activity.
We're a long way from that.
6 comments:
The schools budget is a mess says the Selectmen.
Bud runs a tight ship, on a shoe string say the Selectmen.
The Town budget is always getting gutted. And, the schools get everything! Whines Bud (annually).
Sound familiar? And then – you look at the actual budget numbers (like the Rec Director’s pay raises) and it all seems so, so “different.”
So are you saying we are paying $93K Plus benefits + a pension + building costs for a program that might serve 80 kids and 40 adults. It would be cheaper to give each person a $1,000 and telling them to stay home!
I suspect the 80+40 participants are those that utilize school buildings. I assume the Dept serves others at their location at Oakcrest and at the beaches.
This is what is wrong with most bureaucracy. So there is whining about operations budget yet the pay of the department heads goes up and up and no further staff is added except through pay and go methodology with contracts to individuals to run programs. But let's get real this has been the way for both school and municipal for decades. Salaries keep going up and up in budgets without looking seriously, systematically and yearly at operations and infrastructure.
This is about turf on both sides. It is about problems like the Community School not getting resolved in a timely manner and now the schools are scrabbling. It is about no operations over site. It is about so called leaders who can't fight their own battles but expect people to line up behind them. When I read that article I thought, what a bunch of bull. Just what we need another distraction due to paid leaders who can't do their jobs and want to do politics on us instead!
The other problem with this entire situation is the attitude that half of this town has that activities should be free or based on a 1980s budget. In the article, Bud gave an example of a running club that is offered to students once a week after school for 1.5 hours. The new fees will force him to raise the cost of the class from from $81 to $121. $121 is about half of what most parents are paying for any kind of after school activity. It would have been nice if the Rec Dept thought about asking the parents how they felt about the increase itstead of just cancelling the class which takes away a great class from the children, eliminates a job, and decreases the revenue of the Rec Dept. People in this town need to realize that the taxs we pay DO NOT include free after school activities for children (or art classes, subsidized swimming, or multitude of other things). My biggest frustration is that Guy did not at least offer up the opportunity to see if people would sign up. If they did not, then he could have gone back to the town and showed that the fees affected his business. I am pretty sure that the majority of parents are not going to complain about the increase but will complain about the lack of offerings. If the Rec Dept is not going to offer classes this fall, what exactly is Guy's job description?
Perhaps some one can find out how much revenue was turned back into the towns budget as a profit for operating all of these programs on the schools dime?
I ask is it not possible that the rec director put together a budget system where the costs are at least the same as what it takes to operare it. This sounds like another community school budget where the operating costs to provide a workable program is being paid out of the pockets of the school children.
Nice deal if you can get it, especially if you are one of the chosen few in the programs being conducted that have your cost susidized through the school budget.
Who is paying for the space being used at Oakcrest Cove for all of those little enterprizes. Along with the lights, heat and up keep of the building.?
It is time that a definitive breakdown of costs and expenses be made available to the tax payers of Sandwich, along with a open meeting by the board of Selectmen to address this issue.
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